Facebook asking locked out users to provide Government ID

 34

If you have opened Twitter today you may have noticed an increase in messages reporting that the social media site Facebook was asking them to provide a Government ID to unlock their account on the site.

The message that users received during log in to their Facebook account states the following: "For security reasons your account is temporarily locked. If this account reflects your real name and personal information, please help us verify it".

The user who has been temporarily locked out of the account is then asked to provide a government ID for verification.

Facebook itself has not published a public comment yet and it is unclear if the company will address the issue at all.

Facebook Government ID

Facebook's Help page provides further information about the practice:

If you can't verify your account using your mobile number, you'll need to provide a copy of your photo ID. This could be a scanned copy or a close-up photo you've taken.

Facebook government ID

Upload a photo ID

How to upload your ID

• Optional: Cover up any confidential information (ex: license or passport number)
• Scan or take a picture of your ID with your digital camera
• Make sure you can clearly see your name, birthday and photo
• Save the photo to your desktop
• Click the button below and follow the instructions to upload your ID

This is my government issued ID. I understand I won't get help with my account if I haven't uploaded a valid ID.

The very same page lists the types of IDs that Facebook accepts:

• Birth certificate
• Driver's license
• Passport
• Marriage certificate
• Official Name change paperwork
• Personal or vehicle insurance card
• Non-driver's government ID
• Green card, residence permit or immigration papers
• Social Security Card
• Voter ID Card

In addition, Facebook will also accept any of the two following items that must show the name and date of birth of the locked out Facebook user.

• Bank statement
• Bus card
• Check
• Credit Card
• Employment verification
• Library card
• Mail
• Magazine subscription stub
• Medical record
• Membership IDs
• Paycheck stub
• Permit
• School card
• School record
• Utility bill
• Yearbook photo

The company notes that data that has been uploaded to Facebook as part of the verification process will be deleted after the verification.

The mass lock-out of users is not the first on Facebook. The most recent lock-out that requested users to provide Facebook with IDs to unlock the account again happened in January of this year. The company back then stated that it may ask users for photo IDs depending on the violation that occurred.

Common violations where this may be the case are accounts where either the name or birth date do not match or exist at all (for instance if a nickname is being used), and maybe also at times to verify account ownership after a hacking attempt.

The only two options that locked out Facebook users have is to either comply with the request and transfer a picture of a photo ID to Facebook, or stop using the site altogether

Fix Google Chrome: Adobe Reader is not allowed when loading pdf documents

 1

If you are running the Google Chrome Canary web browser you may have stumbled upon a new inconvenience in the browser when you are trying to load pdf documents in it. Instead of displaying the contents of the document inline -- that is in the browser's tab -- you are presented with the information that "Adobe Reader is not allowed".

You are probably wondering what is up with that and why the message appears on your screen, when it worked fine the last time you opened a pdf document in the Chrome browser.

Well, Google changed the way the Adobe Reader plug-in is handled in the browser if you have disabled the integrated Chrome PDF Viewer that ships natively with the operating system.

The core reason for disabling the Chrome PDF Viewer in the browser is to use a different PDF reader in it instead. Adobe Reader is one of the plug-ins that can be used for that.

Chrome users won't receive the message if they have the PDF Viewer enabled, as it is then used to render the PDF document in Chrome.

You may also notice that you can only have one PDF plug-in enabled at a time. If you enable Chrome PDF Viewer, the Adobe Reader plug-in will get disabled automatically, and vice verse.

You have three options to fix the issue that you are experiencing:

Right-click on the page with the "Adobe Reader is not allowed" message and select Run this plug-in from the context menu. This loads the document for the time being, but will block it again on consecutive runs

Left-click on the red x icon in the browser's address bar and select "Always allow plug-ins on 'domain name'". This whitelists the domain name you are on, but will block the plug-in from running immediately on other sites.

The third and final option that you have is to load chrome://plugins in the browser, locate the Adobe Reader plug-in there on the page, and check the "Always allowed" box underneath it. This enables the plug-in on all websites so that PDF documents are again loaded automatically when you load them in the browser.

Background information: The reason for the change is Google's phasing out of all NPAPI plug-ins from 2014 on. What this means basically is that you will be able to use the Adobe Reader plugin until Google makes that policy change in 2014 in the Chrome browser. From that moment on, that plug-in, and all others that use NPAPI, won't work anymore in the browser.

What this means for users of the browser is that their only option to view PDF documents in Chrome will be Google's own PDF Viewer. There won't be another way unless extensions come along that integrate the functionality into the browser.

If you want to view PDFs in Adobe Reader or another PDF reader, you will need to download those to your system first before you can view them.

Google sign ins have become a tad more difficult for multi-account owners now

 11

Usually when you sign in to an Internet service or site like Gmail, you are asked to enter your username or password to do so. And if you have configured two-factor authentication, you may also be asked to provide the second code to complete the login process and access account data.

Google recently changed how you log in to its products, and if you happen to be a multi-account owner, not for the better. Multi-account in this regard means that you have access to multiple Google accounts that you switch between regularly.

The sign in form has changed significantly, with the most important change being that Google is now displaying your username (your email address usually) in the username field by default so that you cannot change it anymore.

The new Google sign in page

One account. All of Google.

Sign in to continue to Gmail.

Sign in with a different account

If you are just using that account, that is not that big of a change as you just have to type your password to sign in to the service.

The problems start when you want to use a different account to sign in. Say, you have a work and home account, or a friend wants to sign in, or you use multiple accounts to access different Google products. Whatever the reason, you may notice that the only way to go forward with signing in with a different Google account is to click on the "sign in with a different account" link underneath the login form.

If you now thought that Google is displaying a username and password field for your to log in to the selected Google service regularly, you are wrong.

Instead, you are taken to a "Choose an account" page where you can select from accounts that you have previously signed in with, or pick a new account by clicking on the add account link on that page.

Only when you click on the "Add account" link, you are taken to a page where you are allowed to enter an alternate email address and password that you want to sign in with.

Each account that you add this way is added to the list of accounts that you can switch between. So, whenever you want to change accounts, you need to perform the very same steps to do so. Instead of clicking on "add account" on the "choose an account" page, you may select an account that you have previously added. That too requires you to go through the process, so instead of being able to sign in with a different account directly, you need to click twice before you can do so.

Options

You have three options to change this behavior. While you cannot undo the new Google sign in page at all, you can:

1. Clear all Google related cookies whenever you want to switch accounts to clear the email field so that you can type in the email and password field on the Google sign in form.
2. Use a different web browser or a different browser profile to use multiple accounts without going through the process.
3. Use a browser extension that enables you to use different accounts by using separate sets of cookies for these accounts.

Closing Words

While Google is usual

Diagnose why you can’t connect to servers or sites

 0

Most programs that you use to connect to servers or site on a local network or the Internet display only basic information when a connection attempt fails.

These basic information are usually not enough to find out why the connection failed, and while it sometimes helps to try again, you often need to troubleshoot the issue to find out what is happening.

Operating systems ship with tools that let you do so. You can use basic commands such as ping or tracert for example to find out more about a connection.

The free cross-platform application Why Can't I Connect? has been designed to resolve TCP/IP connection errors.

Diagnose connection errors

The free program displays a blank screen on startup. You need to use the file toolbar or main toolbar to test various connection types. The supported operations include testing the following connections:

• Connection to a Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL server
• Connections to FTP or SFTP servers
• Connections to POP3, IMAP or SMTP servers
• Connections to an IRC server
• Connections to an LDAP server
• Connections to an Usenet server
• Generic client or server connections based on IP address / hostname and port.

To start, select one of the available options and enter IP address / hostname and port information, or other required information, to start the diagnosis of the connection. The process may take a while and you are presented with an overview in the end that helps you find out more about the connection failure.

Note that this dialog is complemented by a log of all connection attempts and look-ups the program made in the main interface.

If the connection fails, you will receive suggestions why no connection could be established to the selected server.

One interesting option that you have is to create a generic server or client and test the connectivity of the computer using them. This can be useful to make sure that generic connection attempts are not blocked. If they are blocked as well, you can be fairly certain that something is preventing the connection (a firewall for instance), and if the connection goes through, you may want to start looking into the service's configuration to double-check that all parameters are in order.

The advanced menu provides you access to the entire socket process from Bind to Close so that you can go through each step of the process one by one.

Why Can't I Connect supports other features, like bridging, which inserts the application between a client and server so that you can better diagnose connection attempts between the two systems.

Closing Words

Why Can't I Connect is a helpful troubleshooting tool for various operating systems that you can use to diagnose connection issues between client and server system

Use QuickSetDNS to change between DNS configurations in a heartbeat

 0

The DNS system is one of the cornerstones of the Internet. It is used mainly to look up the IP address of a domain name so that the requests reach the right server on the Internet.

Most Internet users are probably using the default DNS service of their Internet Service Provider (ISP). That's not a bad thing most of the time, as it works right out of the box.

There are however a couple of issues that users may identify when they are using the default DNS of their ISP. The following -- incomplete -- list looks at some of the more common issues that you may experience:

• Look-ups may not be as fast as they can be, thus increasing the latency of the connection.
• DNS may be used to block specific websites from being accessed, by either redirecting users away from the original server or by blocking connection attempts outright.
• Your ISPs DNS service may be less reliable, which may result in look-up failures among other things.

Third party DNS providers may fix all those issues for you. In addition, they may offer other features such as phishing or botnet protection, web-based filtering, or typo correction that you can make use of.

QuickSetDNS

Nirsoft's QuickSetDNS is a free portable application for all recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system that enables you to switch between the default DNS provider and alternate providers with two clicks.

The program looks up the default DNS service first and adds it to the list of available services, so that you can go back to it whenever the need arises. It furthermore lists the Automatic DNS configuration and Google's Public DNS server.

If you want to add other providers, say OpenDNS, you can do so easily:

1. Right-click in the main window and select New > DNS Server or use the shortcut Ctrl-N to open the dialog.
2. Type a name for the new service (pick any descriptive name you want), and add at least two server IP addresses separated by a comma.
3. Click OK to save the new server.

The new server is added to the list of available DNS servers. To switch to it select it before you click on the activate DNS button in the interface. If you prefer the keyboard, use the F2 key to activate the selected DNS server.

Note: You may need to select the correct network adapter first before you do so if your computer has multiple interfaces installed.

There is another option that you can make use of to speed things up. You do not have to open the program manually first whenever you want to switch the DNS provider. It is possible to create a command that does so for you. Just select one of the providers in the program window before you select Edit > Copy SetDNS Command Line or press Ctrl-L.

This copies the command to set the selected DNS server to the clipboard. You can add it to a simple batch file for example to change the server with the click on the file.

Verdict

If you need to change DNS servers regularly on your system, for instance for testing purposes or because you are using different services for different purposes, then you may find QuickSetDNS helpful for that task.

Why you need to verify app developers before you download in Windows Store

Why you need to verify app developers before you download in Windows Store

 5

If you have worked with Windows 8 before you have likely browsed the integrated Windows Store at least once to see what is on offer there. I personally think that Microsoft missed a chance here to include a universal app manager into the system that includes desktop and Windows apps.

While you do get links to some desktop apps right now, it is not the same as downloading verified virus-free programs from the store that auto-update automatically. Plus, I cannot figure out why some desktop apps are listed here while others are not.

Windows Store has its issues (this is a review of Windows 8 store, not Windows 8.1 store), and while some can surely be attributed to the store's (young) age, others are harder to explain as they reduce the user experience significantly.

I have talked about deceptive apps in store before, and also pointed out that -- what I called -- Media Player spam was running wild in store.

The situation has not really changed that much it seems since then, as you find those apps still listed in store. What may be even worse is that they still rise to the frontpage of the store every now and then.

A quick look at the new & rising category for instance lists VideoVLC Player there, while an application like LinkedIn HD is listed in the Trending category on the frontpage.

The problem? They are not official apps. Both hop on the bandwagon of popular programs (VLC) or services (LinkedIn) without being affiliated with them in any way.

If you are an experienced computer user, you are probably able to distinguish between first and third party apps published in the store. Inexperienced users on the other hand may install those apps because they believe they are the real deal, when they are not in fact.

Verify app developers

The best way to make sure that an application is legit -- that means a first party app produced by the company that offers a service, website or program-- is to verify the developer that has published it.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Open the application page in Windows Store that you are interested in.
2. Locate the "Published by" information on the page. This is displayed underneath the large screenshot of the app in Windows 8.1
3. Here you find the name of the company or individual.
4. It is usually enough to determine whether an application has been created by the right company or not.
5. The official Facebook application has been published by Facebook, Inc. for example, while applications such as Facebook+ Lite, Facebook Forever, or Facebook Browser by WinApp8, awesome facebook and youtube devs, or iceDevs.
6. You can click on it to display a list of apps that this developer has published. This provides you with additional information. If you see different apps listed here, say a YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn app, you can be fairly certain that this is a third party developer and not a first party one.

Tip: You can alternatively search the Apps for Windows website over at Microsoft as it lists the publisher as well.

Reasons to verify developers

There are two main reasons why you may want to verify developers before you download apps to your system.

1. First to make sure that you are downloading an official app. This is especially important if you need to sign in to a service before you can make use of it. If you do not like the idea of submitting your sign in information through a third party app, then you better make sure you download the real one or connect to the service in your browser.
2. Second to avoid installing apps that are either technical inferior, or rip-offs.

Closing Words

The third party apps used in this article are just examples of what you find in Windows Store currently. There are legit third party apps in store that you can download and use without any issues, but there are also those apps that I would not touch even if someone paid me money to do so.

The best protection against questionable apps is to not install them at all. Even if you are running Windows RT, you have options, like connecting to the websites of said services instead of using apps.

Why you can’t play 1080p or 480p YouTube HTML5 videos in Firefox anymore

 12

The popular video hosting and streaming website YouTube uses two technologies to stream videos to its users. Either by making use of Adobe Flash, or HTML5 Video, with the latter option marked as experimental for some time now.

Provided that you have a HTML5 capable browser, you can join the HTML5 trial on YouTube to use this technology on the site. The core benefit here is that you do not have to install or use Adobe Flash Player at all.

To do so, load this page on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/html5 and click on the join button on it.

If you have not visited that page for a while, you may notice that Google has added three new bits of information to it. The page not only informs you if your browser supports HTML5 Video, H.264 and WebM VP8, but also if it supports Media Source Extensions.

If you open that page in Firefox, Safari or older browser versions, then you will notice that the browser's don't support it.

Media Source Extensions YouTube

Media Source Extensions explained

The feature, in layman terms, allows web applications such as YouTube or Netflix to generate media streams for playback in JavaScript. This makes way for new features such as adaptive streaming (for instance MPEG-DASH) or live streams, or to transfer encrypted contents to the user, decode it using JavaScript, to play it in the browser afterwards.

A highly technical draft document is available here that provides you with additional information about Media Source Extensions.

YouTube

Firefox HTML5 player YouTube

If you are using the HTML5 video player on YouTube in Firefox, you may have noticed that you do not get to select 1080p or 480p as the video resolution no matter what you do.

YouTube Flash Player

You may have also noticed that you do get to select 1080p if you leave the HMTL5 beta and return to Adobe Flash Player.

Google recently switched to adaptive streaming on YouTube for 480p and 1080p videos by using Media Source Extensions. Since Firefox does not support that feature yet, the option to switch to streams that make use of it becomes unavailable in the browser.

That's why you cannot select 1080p or 480p anymore if you are using Firefox and have joined the HMTL5 video trial.

The only way around this for now is to use Adobe Flash to play videos on YouTube.

Mozilla

Mozilla is working on an implementation of Media Source Extensions, but  it is not clear yet when it will become available. You can follow these two bugs on Bugzilla to monitor the progress made in this regard.

Upgraded your system to Windows 8.1? Time to free up some disk space

 12

Whenever you update your Windows operating system, be it by installing security or other patches, or by upgrading to a new service pack or even operating system version, a copy of the previous version of files is stored on the system so that it is possible to rollback the update.

An indicator that this is indeed the case is the Windows.old folder that you may have sitting on your computer's primary hard drive. It contains files and folders that were part of the previous version of Windows installed on the PC.

That's great if you run into troubles on the updated system, but it also means that storage space is being used by those rollback files that could be used otherwise.

After a while, those files become dead weight as you won't need them to roll back to a previous version of the operating system anymore.

Free up Disk Space after Windows 8.1 upgrade

If you have upgraded your operating system to Windows 8.1 recently from Windows 8, or maybe even from Windows 7 to 8 and then 8.1, then you may have Gigabytes of old versions stored on your operating system that you may not need anymore.

Tip: I suggest you work with the new system at least for one or two days to make sure that everything is working as intended. This includes connecting external hardware to the system and running all important applications that you rely on.

The Windows Disk Cleanup tool has been designed to remove temporary or old files from Windows that are no longer needed. This includes files from previous operating system installations as well as updates, and files that are no longer needed because they have been replaced with a newer version.

Windows 8.1 users who upgraded their system from Windows 8 or Windows 7 may discover that they can remove Gigabytes of space from the system when they run the cleanup tool. The easiest way to run the tool is the following:

• Tap on the Windows-key if you are not on the start screen.
• Type Disk Cleanup and select "Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files".
• Click on the button "clean up system files". The application restarts and additional cleanup options are available.
• Look for the entry "Previous Windows installation(s)" and "Windows Update Cleanup" and check how much disk space you can recover if you clean these.
• Select all areas of the operating system that you want to clean and click on ok afterwards.
• Note: if you select those options, you will no longer be able to restore the previous version of Windows or a previous update.

Tip: I'd recommend that you run the tool a couple of days after installing updates (to make sure everything is running ok) to free up disk space, especially if storage space is scarce on your primary drive

Restrict local IMAP email copies in Thunderbird to save disk space and speed up search

 1

If you have a lot of emails stored in the Thunderbird email client, you may have noticed two things: that the emails are taking quite the chunk of disk space, and that the performance of search may have deteriorated.

This can be an issue, especially if you use search often or are running low on disk space. While some of you may need access to an email archive that dates back five or even ten years, others may not need access to emails that old, at least not locally.

One suggestion for this particular situation is to archive emails in the excellent Mailstore Home email backup application. Once archived, you deleted the old emails in Thunderbird but can still access them in the Mailstore program whenever the need arises.

If you do not want to use Mailstore, or prefer a native solution, then you can make changes to how Thunderbird synchronizes and stores emails for IMAP accounts.

Restrict local copies in Thunderbird

Thunderbird will sync all email messages by default, regardless of age. A local copy is kept for search, so that you can search a single account or use the global search feature to find text not only in email headers but also in the body.

The email client offers two options to deal with emails that you do not longer need direct access to:

1. Synchronize by age only
2. Delete old email messages

To make the modifications do the following:

1. Select Tools > Account Settings or right-click on the inbox of the account that you want to configure and select Settings.
2. Switch to the Synchronization & Storage menu listed under the account.

The default setting under Disk Space is to synchronize all messages locally regardless of age. If you want to restrict that, select "Synchronize the most recent" and select a a time frame in days, weeks, months or years that you are comfortable with (e.g 1 year).

Note: This won't affect the state of messages that have already been downloaded to your email program immediately. It may take a while before the body of those messages does not show up anymore in the client. The emails are still listed, but when you click on them, they are downloaded from the server.

The second option that you have is to configure Thunderbird to automatically delete messages. You can either select to keep only a certain number of emails at all times, e.g. 2000, or delete messages that are older than a certain age automatically. If you are using starred messages, you can select to keep those regardless of the modifications you make here.

Tip: You can configure the search -- under Edit > Find > Search Messages to run the search on the server. This can be useful if you have restricted local email copies but need to search emails that you have received before that period of time.

Closing Words

This tip is mostly for situations where you computer is running out of disk space or when you have noticed that sear

 1

If you have a lot of emails stored in the Thunderbird email client, you may have noticed two things: that the emails are taking quite the chunk of disk space, and that the performance of search may have deteriorated.

This can be an issue, especially if you use search often or are running low on disk space. While some of you may need access to an email archive that dates back five or even ten years, others may not need access to emails that old, at least not locally.

One suggestion for this particular situation is to archive emails in the excellent Mailstore Home email backup application. Once archived, you deleted the old emails in Thunderbird but can still access them in the Mailstore program whenever the need arises.

If you do not want to use Mailstore, or prefer a native solution, then you can make changes to how Thunderbird synchronizes and stores emails for IMAP accounts.

Restrict local copies in Thunderbird

Thunderbird will sync all email messages by default, regardless of age. A local copy is kept for search, so that you can search a single account or use the global search feature to find text not only in email headers but also in the body.

The email client offers two options to deal with emails that you do not longer need direct access to:

1. Synchronize by age only
2. Delete old email messages

To make the modifications do the following:

1. Select Tools > Account Settings or right-click on the inbox of the account that you want to configure and select Settings.
2. Switch to the Synchronization & Storage menu listed under the account.

The default setting under Disk Space is to synchronize all messages locally regardless of age. If you want to restrict that, select "Synchronize the most recent" and select a a time frame in days, weeks, months or years that you are comfortable with (e.g 1 year).

Note: This won't affect the state of messages that have already been downloaded to your email program immediately. It may take a while before the body of those messages does not show up anymore in the client. The emails are still listed, but when you click on them, they are downloaded from the server.

The second option that you have is to configure Thunderbird to automatically delete messages. You can either select to keep only a certain number of emails at all times, e.g. 2000, or delete messages that are older than a certain age automatically. If you are using starred messages, you can select to keep those regardless of the modifications you make here.

Tip: You can configure the search -- under Edit > Find > Search Messages to run the search on the server. This can be useful if you have restricted local email copies but need to search emails that you have received before that period of time.

Closing Words

This tip is mostly for situations where you computer is running out of disk space or when you have noticed that sear